Growing fruit in the Rocky Mountains, including New Mexico's southern Rockies, is dicey. Late spring and early autumn frosts, snow, wind, and drought are all hazards thrown forth by nature.  But when the perfect conditions exist, and those hazards aren't part of the mix, some of the tastiest fruit ever explodes onto the scene by the bushel and ton.  2016 has been one of those years.  People have had apricots and peaches, plums and pears, and now the apples are ripening, and they are a delight. 

It is this time of year when I wax sentimental about a place known as Dixon's Apple Farm, previously located in the Jemez Mountains near Peña Blanca. There are several places on earth that I consider the most beautiful, and this certainly ranked as one.  My husband and I made a pilgrimage there every year to buy 40 pound bags of their signature ¨Champagne¨and "Sparkling Burgundy¨apples.  Oh, my.  Were they good!  Here is a photograph of a Sparkling Burgundy tree at Dixon's, way back when (1992), made on Kodachrome 25 transparency film and scanned.  It was shot with either a Minolta 200 or 201. I owned both and they were my "go to" cameras for many years.

Dixons' Apple Farm sparkling burgundy tree

A bin of "Champagne" apples just harvested in the orchard.

Champagne apples at Dixon's

There is a long story of struggle and renewal, land swaps and politics, fire (the Los Conchas Fire in 2011), and flood at Dixon's.  In the end, Becky and Jim Mullane moved with their children to Wisconsin and began again, taking with them clippings of the patented "Champagne" apple.  Becky's grandfather, Fred Dixon, found a wild apple tree in a canyon near Dixon's, grafted it to other stock and created the new variety "Champagne" that became a legend in New Mexico.  It would be interesting to know how the apple takes to the Wisconsin soil and how the flavor changes. 

The lineage of many apples in New Mexico is unknown because of changes in land ownership or information not being passed on to members of other generations.  These are apples that came from our friend Victoria's place in Lamy.  Sweet, beautiful things they are. All I know is that they are apples.  To me, there is nothing like a black background for photographing almost anything, including fruit.  The image below was made with a Nikon D80.

Victoria's apples

Here is a setup I shot for greeting cards (with recipes) with my first digital camera, a Minolta DiMage A2.  Nothing dramatic as far as pixels are concerned, and it was far from today's DSLRs, but for a bit, it did the trick.

apple crisp ingredients

As the temperatures cool and we welcome autumn, I will always think about and appreciate apples in New Mexico, and their smell drifting through the cool air.  And I think of the Dixons, now in Cadott, Wisconsin, in the Chippewa Valley, wishing them much success.  http://dixonsapples.com/

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@